Helium 3: Fight for the Future

by Brandon Q. Morris

  There! The third from the left. Kimikizu isolated it from the others. It was clear that this line was transmitting data, which she could tell by using her magnetic sense. She carefully took the cable in her left hand and then snapped it with her right. The transfer stopped immediately. A Mendrak technician would be sure to notice now, if nobody had already noticed her escape. She removed some insulation and tapped the two ends of the cable together in keeping with the rhythm of the jay call.

  But this one wasn’t the only data cable in this bundle. She found two more, and she repeated the same process with these. Then she crawled on as fast as she could. Kimikizu sensed that she’d be tracked down soon.

  The next cable bundle came within range of her magnetic sense. It was in a branch of the duct covered with a sheet of metal, which she pried off by using the artificial joint. The fields that emanated from this bundle were strong. She pulled the lines toward her to reach them better, and from far down the duct she heard something rattle.

  First, she’d have to isolate the power cable. Its magnetic field overlapped all the others so that she only saw reddish clouds. She pulled forcefully until some of the fasteners came loose and she could drive the power cable down into the duct. Now it was no longer in the way. She used her magnetic sense again to locate the data connections. She found five of them and rejoiced. That would make for a total of eight connections. Shouldn’t at least one of them lead to an antenna?

  She took one cable at a time. Short—short—long—short—long—short—short—long. Whenever an Iks spaceship picked up this call, it knew there was a real danger. No enemy knew the secret of this rhythm. She sent it over the first cable, over the second, and then the third.

  When she cut the fourth, the lights suddenly went out. The walls, which had been dimly lit before, went dark. Crap! Had she shut down the power supply? Or was there someone on her trail who’d done this to her? She would not let herself be deterred. However, she couldn’t see anything in the dark, and her magnetic sense detected the cable was no longer conducting electricity. But she could still use her fingers to feel for the ends, although there was the risk of a short circuit if she were to connect the wrong ends. She had no choice. Kimikizu fumbled for the ends of the cables and put them together.

  There was a bright flash, immediately followed by a strong odor.

  There was something in the duct in front of her! The flash had reflected in the facets of an extremely large eye located on a gleaming black body. Her pursuers had found her! She had to fight back! The power cable, which she could use as a weapon, was still within reach. If she was careful and only touched the metallic parts with her fingernail, the current would not flow through her but through her opponent. How sensitive were the Mendraki to electric shocks?

  Kimikizu reached for the cable. The Mendrak slid closer. Was it Tolkut or some soldier? She tried to see the spider’s face, but it was too dark. Tolkut had seemed like a reasonable individual. If she killed him, wouldn’t she deprive herself of her only ally? She might gain a little time to send more signals, but even killing a simple soldier would undoubtedly weaken her position on board.

  She let go of the cable. It was no use. She’d have to allow herself to be arrested. She could only hope that the alien in front of her would understand that, too. It was so ridiculous that she couldn’t communicate with the Mendrak without technical assistance. She was squeezed so tightly in the duct that she couldn’t even show her empty hands so the enemy would know she wasn’t carrying a gun. She tilted her head to the side, so that at least her beak wouldn’t protrude so menacingly.

  The rest now depended on the Mendrak.

  Flight

  A female? The... the prisoner is a female? This is... unbelievable! How can the aliens send a female on such a mission? They’re uncivilized savages who are capable of anything! Perhaps Netmaster Kasfok was right after all!

  Shipmaster Lebdar on the Red Skies By the Light of Dawn said aloud what Tolkut suspected all the other ship attendants participating in the conference call were probably thinking. He had surprised himself by how little he’d been affected by the startling disclosure. For him, too, it had been a shock initially to find himself speaking to a female who was not just intelligent, but who also acted with such obvious self-confidence. And, who even had a name!

  Even in the time before they would get lobotomized, the Mendraki females were little more than necessary fertility machines of low intelligence, and therefore all the more aggressive. It was rumored that in the old days, when the Mendraki’s spark of intelligence had not yet ignited, the females had frequently killed and eaten their sexual partners following copulation. However, historians had relegated this theory to the realm of fable.

  What had been proven beyond a doubt was that the females, from time immemorial, had always been murderously aggressive toward other females and their egg sacs. This was the main reason why a procedure was necessary to eradicate this predisposition for those on the close-quartered ships. Females were dangerous! And now this...

  Tolkut became increasingly aware of how different the other species was from the Mendraki and wondered what other surprises they might have in store.

  He had convened the conference call immediately after the end of the conversation with Kimikizu—he still stumbled over the idea of a female name—in order to inform the allied Shipmasters about the development and to obtain current information about the situation in the rest of the net fleet. During their stay along the edges of the gas giant’s atmosphere and its strong magnetic field, communication with the other ships in the fleet had been virtually impossible.

  The news that he had captured one of the aliens was a source of astonishment. The discovery that it was a female of this species was tantamount to a revolution. At first the other Shipmasters did not want to believe it, and asked several times if it was a mistake or a lie. Tolkut hadn’t been able to rule out the latter with absolute certainty, but he had the feeling that Kimikizu hadn’t lied to him. She was, in fact, a female, and certainly not aware of the implications this information had for the Mendraki. So why should she have lied to him about her sex?

  It was now a matter of making sure that this alone didn’t sway the allied Shipmasters in their opinions regarding Kasfok and his militant plans.

  The aliens are just that—alien! Tolkut drummed on the communication thread, producing vibrations that the radio drummer then emitted to the other ships from his console on Bud's bridge. It should come as no surprise to us that their customs and traditions differ enormously from ours. Rather, we have to be amazed that they are so biologically similar to us. For example, they could have just as well been silicate-based beings or single-sex jellyfish in an aquatic atmosphere, to name just two exotic possibilities our writers have invariably speculated about in their fantastic stories about Mendrakia.

  So we’ve been lucky that communication has been possible at all, even though they use an unorthodox method with air vibrations instead of a thread to do so. However, none of this automatically makes them dangerous, or even our enemies! Consequently, Kasfok is not right, and I am convinced that they are blessed with sufficient intelligence, reason, and logic to recognize the danger of a war and come to an amicable solution. Their survival depends on it just as much as ours does!

  Shipmaster Palter drummed from the Silken Thread of the Homeland, telling them, Kasfok is currently trying to convince the neutrals that it’s necessary to attack the asteroid ship. He’s confident that he can still be victorious even without our ships.

  We can’t let that happen, warned Tolkut. Even though they seem very strange to us, we must not make the mistake of underestimating them. I think they are fortified enough to do us great harm—harm we cannot afford. We are the last Mendraki, and the survival of our species depends on the survival of each and every one of us!

  I’m afraid that in the event of doubt, some of the neutrals will be inclined to rely on Kasfok rather than the uncertain prospect of a peaceful solut
ion, drummed Shipmaster Serant from the Balm of the Dense Morning Fog. Tolkut could see Serant dancing a few steps of remorse.

  Where is the generation ship currently located? Tolkut asked his remote scout.

  It’s approaching the orbit of the third planet, and will pass close by. The ship is moving slower than we predicted.

  They’ve certainly determined that their scout ship has been destroyed, and they’ll be proceeding with greater caution. They must also have noticed the clash between our ships and wonder what exactly is going on here.

  It’s far enough away not to be considered an acute threat, interjected Munion, whose ship, the Unity Alone Ensures Victory, had been repaired post-haste, just as Kasfok’s Proud Dance in the Sunlight had presumably been. Even if Kasfok starts an attack on the asteroid ship, we should be able to intervene in time.

  Is that what we want? Do we really want to start a civil war because of the aliens? asked Shipmaster Doskart from the Mild Breeze Over Endless Forests.

  Before Tolkut had a chance to respond, an emergency message came across the thread. One of the bridge officers who’d been assigned to monitor their ‘guest’ was sending an alarm signal to Tolkut.

  We have to continue the meeting later, the Shipmaster drummed to his colleagues. I have to attend to something that urgently requires my attention. He signaled the radio drummer to interrupt the transmission. What is it? he asked, addressing the officer on watch.

  The... The prisoner... our... guest...

  Drum clearly! The stammering vibrations irritated Tolkut. What’s going on with Kimikizu?

  She’s not there anymore!

  What? How can that be? The room was locked. How could she disappear without your noticing?

  He... She had settled in her bed to sleep. And then... she... relieved herself. In the middle of the room! It was... disgusting. So then for a moment I... the camera... I just couldn’t watch!

  For a moment? Tolkut danced steps of doubt and jutted his mandible forward.

  You know... I couldn’t know how long... that... took... and that’s when I... It could have been longer than a moment.

  How long? Tolkut’s irritation at the officer’s negligence was now unmistakable. The messages communicated by his body language were unambiguously emphasized by the smell of the threatening pheromones he was now exuding.

  Several pulses, the officer confessed in tiny beats, lowering his mandibles as far as he could as a sign of subservience.

  Send two soldiers to the cell. I want to know how she managed to escape. I don’t know what she’s hoping to achieve—there is no way out of the Bud—but maybe she intends to sabotage essential equipment in order to paralyze or even destroy us. It could be a suicide mission.

  We can’t take any risks! Soldiers need to search and secure all critical sectors of the Bud immediately. I want to have at least one team of two soldiers stationed at every critical system. All other forces are to search the ship outward in both directions from the cell, toward both bow and stern. No hiding place that Kimikizu could fit into should be overlooked. She must be found!

  Tolkut didn’t really believe that the Iks—that was the name of their species, if he remembered correctly—was planning a sabotage operation or even a suicide attack, but what did he know about her? He was disappointed that she was so disgracefully undermining his attempts at mutual understanding. But he reminded himself that she was just a female, and for that reason alone, he shouldn’t be too surprised by her behavior. He shivered at the thought of what civilizations that had two—or even more!—sexes on equal footing had to endure. Tolkut couldn’t imagine that many such civilizations could exist in the universe. They probably went down in chaos pretty early on.

  Several pulses later, the soldiers still hadn’t been able to find a trace of Kimikizu. It was now clear that the Iks had used a technical power booster hidden in the sleeve of her suit to open the locked door of the storage room. Tolkut held himself to blame for not having examined her equipment carefully enough.

  He remained on the bridge and personally coordinated the search to not miss any clues as to Kimikizu’s whereabouts.

  Tolkut considered what he would do if he were in his... her situation. Escaping the Bud was simply impossible. The pods were in standby mode and now heavily guarded, and besides, the Iks wouldn’t have been able to operate them. Since she hadn’t put on her spacesuit, and therefore couldn’t escape through an airlock, there was no way for her to exit the ship.

  Additionally, Kimikizu would have been lost in space alone. Her asteroid ship was too far away to come to her aid. Within a few pulses, she would have been caught in the gravitational pull of the gas giant, which was still close by, and pulled back into the atmosphere, where she would inevitably perish. As a result, she had to be somewhere on board the Bud, and Tolkut was certain the Iks had something up her sleeve. What could she possibly be plotting?

  Tolkut asked the officers on duty at the various stations if they’d noticed anything unusual.

  No, Netmaster, one of them replied. Apart from unusual signal fluctuations and line interference in the sensor network and the antenna array, everything is normal.

  Signal fluctuations and interference? Of what kind? These terms had gotten Tolkut’s attention.

  Some peripheral data lines were interrupted and briefly showed unmodulated signal pulses. Probably just a malfunction of the transmitter switches.

  What kind of signal impulses?

  Simple voltage patterns. Just an unmodulated series of pulses, the officer repeated. A senseless string of short current surges. Short—short—long—short—long—short—short—long.

  Always the same pattern? Show me an illustration of the disturbances in the spatio-temporal order!

  A hologram of the ship appeared on the display in front of Tolkut. Small red dots were lighting up one after the other, moving through the Bud in a more or less straight line. Tolkut knew immediately what this meant.

  You dim-witted horn-leech, he insulted the officer angrily. These disturbances start in the vicinity of the alien’s cell, right after she escaped. And they proceed away from it across the ship! Kimikizu is trying to send a message! I don’t know yet how she’s doing it, but it’s obvious that she’s trying. She’s tapping into data lines, hoping they will lead to an antenna array. This sequence of pulses isn’t an accident. It’s a message, a code! Which maintenance tunnel is in the direction as indicated by the image?

  The maintenance shaft continues to sector 34-left-07. The reprimanded bridge officer released the pheromone of shame, and his steps asked for forgiveness. Tolkut would deal with the negligent officer later. Now was the time to act quickly before the Iks could do further damage.

  He switched his thread to the ship-wide communication network. Every soldier would now be able to receive Tolkut’s vibrations through the cuffs located at the joints of their spacesuit’s drumming legs.

  This is the Shipmaster! The individual you are looking for is probably in the maintenance shaft of sector 34-left-07. The search teams in this area must search the shaft from both sides and flank her. Whoever encounters Kimikizu may only use violence in the case of an extreme emergency, and then only to the extent that it is absolutely necessary. I want the Iks to be captured unharmed if possible. She may still be critical to us, so we must keep her alive!

  Tolkut knew very well that the Mendraki’s propensity toward aggressive behavior could easily lead a soldier to be unduly harsh. He secretly understood Kimikizu’s escape and her attempt to contact the asteroid. In her place, he would have done the same thing.

  He had scarcely finished when the bridge officer drummed another message. Shipmaster, there’s been another malfunction in the maintenance shaft in question. The data line to our primary antenna was cut, and the bizarre interference pulses were introduced again.

  Have they been broadcast on the antennas?

  Unfortunately, yes, Shipmaster.

  Tolkut danced a few steps of irritation. He s
hould have had all transmitters shut down immediately once his suspicions had been aroused, and he alone was to blame for this oversight. The signal sequence had most likely been sent out, and there was nothing he could do about it. If Kimikizu had been trying to send a message to her friends in the generation ship, she’d probably succeeded.

  While Tolkut was still trying to control his anger so he could act rationally rather than emotionally, a message from one of the soldiers participating in the search came in on his thread.

  Shipmaster, the soldier drummed on the sensor plates in the glove of the spacesuit. I’ve found her! She’s right in front of me and is holding a high-voltage cable with the fingers of her wings.

  Has she attempted to attack you?

  No... now she’s dropped the cable.

  Does she have another weapon with her?

  I can’t see one, but it’s dark and cramped here. She could be keeping a gun hidden on her body.

  Tolkut considered for a moment. What’s she doing?

  She’s standing calmly in front of me, and now... Now she’s turning her head away from me!

  Tolkut knew immediately what that meant. He remembered how, when they’d first met, he had instinctively feared Kimikizu’s long, hard mouth, and the harm it could have inflicted.

  Soldier, this is a gesture of submission, he drummed quickly, similar to one of our dance steps. She’s turning her mouth away from you to show that she doesn’t intend to attack or hurt you. Approach her slowly and carefully, and get her to back up in the direction of the next maintenance hatch. Since she can’t get past you, she’ll have to back away from you. As soon as she leaves the shaft through the hatch, she’s to be subdued and brought to me on the bridge. I don’t want violence to be used, understand? I have to speak to her!